After a four hour drive through beautiful countryside, we arrived in the Sand Hill region of Nebraska and spent the night in a town called Valentine. In the morning we met up with guide Steve Isom and fished the Merritt Reservoir, which boats a diverse population of trophy fish including walleye, pike and muskie.
Clouds rolled in overnight causing a drop in water temperature, making the fish tight lipped all morning. Without Steve it would be hard to concentrate on one area of this massive body of water; especially since every foot of shoreline is loaded with structure. We jumped from weed bed to weed bed along the edges of the lake looking for muskie and pike. With no luck, we switched gears and fished for walleye. We concentrated on prime spots like the edge of the dam where wind had pushed alewife baitfish.
Dragging bait along the weed beds finally hooked us into a few walleye, including mine that measured 24 inches. Later we visited The Peppermill restaurant where they fried our catch with a side of mango and habanero pepper dipping sauce.
In the afternoon we hooked up with local fishing guru Stan Shied and fished in the secluded Valentine National Wildlife Refuge. This area almost has more water than land, all of which has big largemouth bass, bluegill over two pounds and most of which has northern pike.
We dragged buzz-baits and blue weightless tube jigs across Duck Lake during a full blown blue dragonfly hatch. Bass where jumping clear out of the water left and right. We’d cast next to ripples where a bass jumped and immediately hook up. If a bass missed the lure, it would come back again and again in fury until it was hooked up.
Fishermen are known to exaggerate, but our estimate (which was very deliberately kept until we lost track) was over 100 largemouth between the three of us fishing. All of the bass were healthy, aggressive and most if not all measured 15 inches; not to mention their drooping stomachs.
We circled this small lake twice, catching bass in nearly every fishy-looking spot, and everywhere else. All ponds in the Wildlife Refuge do not allow gas powered boats access, allowing only kayaks and small boats. These secluded fisheries are vibrant and aren’t fished heavily, meaning you might have all that water to yourself.
Stay tuned for the rest of my trip around Western Nebraska. Future posts include another trip to the Valentine Wildlife Refuge for northern pike and largemouth and also Box Butte Reservoir.
